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Monday, June 25, 2012

Le Weekend, Skydiving + DIY Sewing Board

I have mixed feelings about this past weekend.
John was out of town the whole time, which is an auto bust. Plus, my "corrective lenses" + phone broke, so I was totally sequestered in our apartment all weekend. Seriously didn't leave at all. Which also means I never got dressed. That was a bonus.
On the other hand- the forced quarantine meant that I got a TON of work done. My house is a zillion times cleaner + I was able to take on bigger projects for la vie that I just haven't made time for yet.
And hey- let's talk about inspiration. I have THREE theme weeks brewing...
a) The already scheduled Natural + Organic Product review
b) An organizational themed week- based on my efforts to wage war against my craft room this weekend.
c) Downton Abbey ... don't judge. I may or may not have watched 10 hours straight between Friday night and Saturday. The costuming is INCREDIBLE and really inspired me. I couldn't stop eyeing them all up and down. I've already planned out at least 5 DIYs from Downton Abbey. It's going to be awesome.

In other weekend news, my mom felt the need to jump out of a plane. She's kind of .. adventurous. I am, too, but my sort of adventure looks more like hopping on a subway all alone in Vienna, Austria with no idea about where I'm going or am. Hers is much more... terrifying. Thankfully she lived. Good job, Mom. Don't ever do it again. I want my future children to have a fighting chance of *meeting* you.

This last one gives me heart palpitations. Shudder.And now- let's talk about this fab sewing board. John and I went to visit his parent in Cinci the weekend after my birthday (reference BUNNY WEEKEND if you haven't seen it...). His mom is a sewing woman and understands my love for it as well. She gave me a BUNCH of awesome sewing tools that I'm currently learning how to use and a lot of awesome thread, too. Which is great, because otherwise I'd just use white. For everything.
She also gave me something precious- and it's this peg board. It was made for her by her brother in law, and her mom had one just like it, too. She has had it forever and she decided to give it to me (aww...)! I really love it. I knew immediately how useful it would be for organization + keeping things right at my finger tips (I'm talking to you, elusive scissors...). I gave it a little coat of paint to match my sewing area and hung it this weekend. I love it so. Thank you, Momma K!
If you want your own- follow the steps below!

(1) Get it. Start out with a peg board. If you have one, awesome. If you've found one at a second hand shop or garage sale, still great. If you need to make one, get the board + pegs from a home improvement store (I googled some for $5 and some for $200, haha! Be careful out there!) and then frame it. You can always get good frames at Goodwill or Salvation Army. Just take the glass out.

(2) Paint it. If yours is already assembled, be sure to tape it off before painting. I decided to leave the inside cream because it would still match. If you want to paint it all, just let it dry for a full day in between (at least) so that the painters tape doesn't rip off your fresh coat (assuming you're using multiple colors- if not spray paint it!). I used regular acrylic and didn't sand or anything. It came out perfectly. I also painted the very tips of the pegs in the same light aqua shade for a fun little pop of color.

(3) Display it. Wasn't that crazy easy? It looks great on the wall. I wish I could get a better picture! I absolutely love it. Plus I can just throw whatever I need up there. You could even store threaded needles on the pegs. It's wonderful. If you're wondering about my sewing table, the DIY is here.

PS- Check this out. My MIL also let me raid her (massive!) thread collection in addition to really beef up my pathetic thread supply. If you look at the picture, you can see some spools with tags that say .59 cents. Blow.My.Mind. Thread is SOOO expensive now and it appears that they were just GIVING it away before! Some of the spools had 10 cent tags, but I don't think you can see them in this picture. Wild.

Now that I've hung it- I can see it needs some art. I'm going to try to get a picture of my MIL, her mother, my mother and my grandma (four separate pictures). Then I'll frame each one and put 2 pictures on either side of the peg board (stacked on top of each other). All four women are seamstresses or sew, so I thought it would be really sweet to have them looking over me while I work. It may encourage me not to cut corners, too ;)
Anyway- I have big plans for organization this week! I can't wait to share it all with you. I hope your weekend was fab and this week is a lovely breath of fresh air! As always, thanks for reading!

My brother always told me it was bad for my eyes to wear my glasses all the time, so I only wore them to watch movies + drive. My eyes have gotten stronger at EVERY appointment since then! My prescription is now 1/2 as bad as it was when I started wearing glasses :) Try it!

It's definitely hard to find time! I work about 70 hours/week between all of my jobs. It's a discipline! Hopefully you'll be able to find time soon- creating adds so much to life! And I can tell you enjoy it!